Tribal Nation claims Connecticut lawyer violated open record laws by deleting social media

By Jack Kramer CTnewsjunkie.com

Published 11:00 am, Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Photo: Digital First Media

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Bruce Adams. Courtesy of linkedin

Bruce Adams. Courtesy of linkedin

Photo: Digital First Media

Tribal Nation claims Connecticut lawyer violated open record laws by deleting social media

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

HARTFORD >> The Freedom of Information Commission is close to deciding whether a former top banking official violated Connecticut’s open record laws when he deleted social media posts about the Otoe-Missouria Tribal Nation.

Bruce H. Adams, former chief counsel for the state Department of Banking and at one time acting commissioner, now Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman’s legal counsel, “admittedly deleted social media posts after the Department received a FOIA request for those documents,” Jeffrey J. White, lawyer for the Otoe-Missouria Nation, said in a memo this week.

“The social media posts are public records, and the failure to provide them to the complainant is a direct violation of the FOIA,” White said.

The posts on Twitter and Facebook came at the same time as the Banking Department was feuding with the tribe over its lending practices.

The Attorney General’s Office, which is defending Adams against the allegations, said the complaint should be dismissed because they were his personal views and not the official view of the Banking Department.

“To hold that a public employee’s personal expressions on public issues are public records subject to production and preservation under FOIA would chill First Amendment rights and potentially require the state to monitor state employees social media accounts for compliance with such a ruling,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Budzik wrote in his memo to the commission.

Budzik argues that “The social media posts at issue here at not public records for purposes of this complaint because the relevant posts were not created by Mr. Adams in his official capacity.”

White said that Adams tried to cover up his “negative social media campaign against certain lawful tribal lending activities” by deleting the posts after receiving the FOIA request.

This story has been modified from its original version. See the original at ctnewsjunkie.com.